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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
by Chuck Klosterman

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/599.Sex_Drugs_and_Cocoa_Puffs_A_Low_Culture_Manifesto?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1157059726m/599.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/599.Sex_Drugs_and_Cocoa_Puffs_A_Low_Culture_Manifesto?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/375.Chuck_Klosterman">Chuck Klosterman</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1860573?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an entertaining and quick read that aims to analyze the effects of various aspects of pop culture on people. Each chapter has a different theme (such as the Real World, soccer, When Harry Met Sally, the porn industry, country music, Sim City, even religion) and while you may not agree with all of the opinions presented, it is easy to identify with at least some of them and I found myself laughing out loud more often than I can remember laughing at a book in a LONG time. These are only a few of my favorite quotes:
 
 “No woman will ever satisfy me." - pg 1
 
 “Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less.” –pg 9
 
 “By now, everyone I know is one of seven defined strangers, inevitably hoping to represent a predefined demographic and always failing horribly.” –on The Real World, pg 28
 
 “…Ebert makes a tangential point about whether or not film characters are theoretically ‘aware’ of other films and other movie characters….Could Harrison Ford’s character in What Lies Beneath rent Raiders of the Lost Ark? Could John Rambo draw personal inspiration from Rocky? In Desperately Seeking Susan, what is Madonna hearing when she goes to a club and dances to her own song? Within the reality of one specific fiction, how do other fictions exist?” –pg 36
 
 “To say that you love soccer is to say you believe in enforced equality more than you believe in the value of competition and the capacity of the human spirit…. I would sooner have my kid deal crystal meth than play soccer.” –pg 95
 
 “What’s most disturbing is the amount of Internet porn that has absolutely nothing to do with sexual desire and everything to do with cartoonish misogyny, most notably the endless sites showing men ejaculating on women’s faces while the recipients pretend to enjoy it; this has about as much to do with sex as hitting someone in the face with a frying pan.” –pg 115
 
 “We’ve all heard the argument that there is an eternal double standard about promiscuity: The cliché is that girls who sleep around are inevitably labeled ‘sluts’ while guys who make the rounds are dubbed ‘studs’ (in fact, I hear people making this particular point far more often than I hear anyone literally calling women ‘sluts’ or men ‘studs’). What’s interesting about that argument is the way it’s been absorbed by my generation and all the generations that have followed: The consensus is that this double standard is wrong, so – therefore – we should all have sex with as many people as possible, regardless of our gender. Somehow, this became logical.” –pg 179
 
 “Nothing offends me more than those who claim they wish they could become blindly religious because it would ‘make everything so simple.’ People who make that argument are trying to convince the world that they’re somehow doomed by their own intelligence, and that they’d love to be as stupid as all the thoughtless automatons they condescendingly despise.” –pg 234 
 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/126564?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Renee's review
rating:
bookshelves: bestseller

This is an entertaining and quick read that aims to analyze the effects of various aspects of pop culture on people. Each chapter has a different theme (such as the Real World, soccer, When Harry Met Sally, the porn industry, country music, Sim City, even religion) and while you may not agree with all of the opinions presented, it is easy to identify with at least some of them and I found myself laughing out loud more often than I can remember laughing at a book in a LONG time. These are only a few of my favorite quotes:

“No woman will ever satisfy me." - pg 1

“Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less.” –pg 9

“By now, everyone I know is one of seven defined strangers, inevitably hoping to represent a predefined demographic and always failing horribly.” –on The Real World, pg 28

“…Ebert makes a tangential point about whether or not film characters are theoretically ‘aware...more This is an entertaining and quick read that aims to analyze the effects of various aspects of pop culture on people. Each chapter has a different theme (such as the Real World, soccer, When Harry Met Sally, the porn industry, country music, Sim City, even religion) and while you may not agree with all of the opinions presented, it is easy to identify with at least some of them and I found myself laughing out loud more often than I can remember laughing at a book in a LONG time. These are only a few of my favorite quotes:

“No woman will ever satisfy me." - pg 1

“Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less.” –pg 9

“By now, everyone I know is one of seven defined strangers, inevitably hoping to represent a predefined demographic and always failing horribly.” –on The Real World, pg 28

“…Ebert makes a tangential point about whether or not film characters are theoretically ‘aware’ of other films and other movie characters….Could Harrison Ford’s character in What Lies Beneath rent Raiders of the Lost Ark? Could John Rambo draw personal inspiration from Rocky? In Desperately Seeking Susan, what is Madonna hearing when she goes to a club and dances to her own song? Within the reality of one specific fiction, how do other fictions exist?” –pg 36

“To say that you love soccer is to say you believe in enforced equality more than you believe in the value of competition and the capacity of the human spirit…. I would sooner have my kid deal crystal meth than play soccer.” –pg 95

“What’s most disturbing is the amount of Internet porn that has absolutely nothing to do with sexual desire and everything to do with cartoonish misogyny, most notably the endless sites showing men ejaculating on women’s faces while the recipients pretend to enjoy it; this has about as much to do with sex as hitting someone in the face with a frying pan.” –pg 115

“We’ve all heard the argument that there is an eternal double standard about promiscuity: The cliché is that girls who sleep around are inevitably labeled ‘sluts’ while guys who make the rounds are dubbed ‘studs’ (in fact, I hear people making this particular point far more often than I hear anyone literally calling women ‘sluts’ or men ‘studs’). What’s interesting about that argument is the way it’s been absorbed by my generation and all the generations that have followed: The consensus is that this double standard is wrong, so – therefore – we should all have sex with as many people as possible, regardless of our gender. Somehow, this became logical.” –pg 179

“Nothing offends me more than those who claim they wish they could become blindly religious because it would ‘make everything so simple.’ People who make that argument are trying to convince the world that they’re somehow doomed by their own intelligence, and that they’d love to be as stupid as all the thoughtless automatons they condescendingly despise.” –pg 234

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